“Men build too many walls and not enough bridges” This quote by Joseph Fort Newton encapsulates the way in which Caribbean today is characterize by grave intolerance and mistrust at all levels. The Caribbean as a region is not the most trusting or tolerant place for people of differing beliefs and lifestyles which seems to conflict with the image most persons outside of the region have. To those outside the Caribbean is a tropical paradise where all its people sit on nice sandy beaches and get along well with each other but unfortunately that is just a facade created to attract tourists. The truth is that there is mistrust among Caribbean people and a level of intolerance that renders civility and respect almost nonexistent.
Countries of the Caribbean share a common ancestry, geographic location and history. What reason would persons of the Caribbean have to mistrust their own people? Let us examine the case of Sonya King and her infant son who learned that answer the hard way. “I always hear people talk bad about Barbados immigration system, but we have a saying in Jamaica that ‘puss and dog don’t have the same luck’, so I put the negative behind me and pursued the trip,” King related to the Observer in an interview. (Observer 2016). Miss. King went on to describe the sense of hostility she felt the moment the immigration officer viewed her passport and heard her accent. This is where her ordeal began. She was denied entry into the country without a valid reason, was forced to sleep on a dirty mattress and her luggage was confiscated, leaving her unable to change her infant’s diapers. One could argue that this is a rare occurrence, however, Jamaicans and Guyanese nationals have, for years, complained that they have been singled out for harsh treatment whenever they arrive in Barbados.
One of the most notable forms of intolerance in the Caribbean is the treatment of the LGBT community. High levels homophobia are shared among most Caribbean nationals when certain laws such as Jamaica’s anti-sodomy or “buggery” laws that prohibit same-sex conduct between consenting adult males, are discussed. This law was created in 1864 when Jamaica was still a British colony. Sections 76 and 77 of the Offences Against the Person Act make “the abominable crime of buggery” punishable by “imprisonment and hard labor for a maximum of ten years,” (Human Rights Watch, 2014). These laws coupled with homophobic culture of the Caribbean has created a society where members of the LGBT community are often attacked and denied employment. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Caribbean face “intolerable levels of violence and cannot rely on the police for protection”. (BBC, 2014)
-Izett Hope
Intolerance. Mistrust. The Caribbean. 